This invention relates to the fields of computers and electronic communications. More particularly, a system, apparatus, graphical user interface and methods are provided for conducting electronic voice communications with status notifications.
Wireless telephones have become indispensable accessories and accompany most people wherever they go. Mobile telephone users are therefore almost always reachable via some form of communication. The ability to conduct live, real-time voice communications is still the main reason many people carry their phones, but many other people may use their telephones more for non-voice communications than for real-time voice communication.
In particular, many people use wireless telephones to exchange short text messages via SMS (Short Message Service). SMS messages are generally limited to 140 characters of text, and are conveyed via control channels of wireless telephone service providers' voice networks. Thus, whether a wireless telephone user is sending a text message to one person or to many people, he or she is limited in how much he or she can communicate at one time. MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) was developed to allow media (e.g., images, video) to be conveyed to and from wireless telephones, but still relies on the SMS protocol to deliver a notification to the recipient.
A wireless telephone user's ability to exchange recorded voice communications with another wireless telephone user, however, are cumbersome, even with MMS. In particular, initiating a voice recording (or other audio recording) on a typical wireless telephone requires multiple actions, such as manipulation of multiple controls in the correct sequence. For example, a user may need to open a recording application, start a recording, end the recording, possibly name it for storage, open a communication application, create a message to the desired recipient, select an option to add an attachment, then find and attach the recording. Even if the originating and destination users are operating a common communication application, the originator may still need to open a menu to find and select an option to make a recording, start the recording, stop it, then select an option to send it to the recipient.